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Frontier Airlines service at Cleveland Hopkins expands again

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Frontier Airlines is expanding again at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. One of the carrier's jets is shown in this picture from mid-February after just landing from Trenton, N.J., before making a quick turnaround back to Trenton.
(Lynn Ischay, The Plain Dealer)

The new routes are in addition to nonstops out of Hopkins on Frontier to its main hub in Denver, as well as nonstops to Cancun and Punta Cana in a partnership with Apple Vacations. In June, Frontier will increase weekly flights to Denver from five to 12.

Airport Director Ricky Smith said Frontier's expansion at Hopkins shows that Northeast Ohio is a strong air service market. And with more flights available on budget carriers such as Frontier, there comes another plus, he said.

"Now that we've moved beyond this hub environment, this community will begin to enjoy low fares like they've never had before," Smith said.

United Airlines announced in February that it would dismantle its Cleveland hub over three months beginning in April. It is reducing its nonstop destinations from around 60 to 20.

Lee Thomas, who heads the Greater Cleveland Partnership's air service committee, noted that several of the new Frontier nonstops are primarily business-related -- Atlanta and Raleight-Durham -- while the others tend to be leisure destinations. Fort Lauderdale is a mix, he said, noting that financial services companies from Latin America are increasingly setting up offices in that Florida city.

Frontier spokesman Daniel Shurz said the carrier announced new nonstops out of Denver, Chicago Midway and Trenton around the time it went public with plans on adding Seattle and Orlando to its Hopkins' nonstops. Of all the new options at the four airports, Shurz said, the strongest demand came in the Cleveland market.

That revved plans to add more nonstops.

"It absolutely weighed into our decision" Shurz said. "We were very pleased with the response we got."

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